You may have heard about VOIP technology- after all, it has been around for almost a decade- but if you haven’t taken a good look at the services that provide it these days, you probably aren’t aware of the benefits that it can offer you. That’s because there have been a whole slew of companies that offer VOIP calling plans with lots of extra features that are designed to save you money.
For the uninitiated, VOIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it takes advantage of the fact that there aren’t any long distance fees placed on data as it moves across the Internet. VOIP technology streams telephone conversations back and forth across the Internet without any loss of sound quality or even a noticeable increase in time lag. In fact, conversations using VOIP technology can be clearer than those using conventional telephone technology. As a result of this set up, you can make local as well as long distance calls for free. Even international calls can be made with sharply discounted rates.
One of the major ways that modern Voice Over Internet Protocol services have improved upon their forebears is in the equipment that they provide to their customers. It used to be that the only way to make a VOIP phone call was by using a virtual telephone on a computer that was hooked up to a high speed Internet connection. Now, while the high speed Internet connection is necessary, and phone calls can still be made over computers, the computer itself isn’t really necessary. That’s because modern VOIP services can provide you with special routers and adapters that can plug into your high speed Internet connection. Once that’s been done, you can then plug your conventional telephone into the adapter and use it exactly like you would with a normal phone line. Because most of these services give you the option of logging onto their web site to make changes to your account- like initiating call forwarding, blocking numbers, accessing voice mail, and the like- a computer is very helpful to have with this service, but by no means necessary.
Other types of equipment that are out there and will allow you to take better advantage of your VOIP service include special phones that combine adapters and the actual hand sets of the phone. One company even offers a model that consists of an adapter/router, two charging bases, and two cordless hand sets. Once the adapter/router is plugged into the Internet connection, the charging bases for the handsets can be placed by any outlet in your home or office without having to worry about the location of phone jacks.
There’s also equipment available that will allow you to make your VOIP service portable. For example, most adapters are small enough to travel with you in your luggage and can be plugged into any high speed Internet connection so that you can make and receive phone calls using your own number no matter where you are in the world! If you want even more portability, you can get a key chain USB device that can plug into any Windows computer with a high speed Internet connection and turn it into your phone. It even comes with a microphone and ear piece. There’s also a handset that can be used to make and receive calls in any wireless hot spot.
These are just a few of the types of special devices that can make subscribing to a VOIP service more practical and flexible.
By: Julia Hall
Posts Tagged ‘Conventional Telephone’
Internet Telephone VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) – Technology and Terms
October 29th, 2009
If you are just starting to look at VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) as an alternative to conventional POTS (plain old telephone service) for your home or office, you will be hit with an all new set of technical terminology and industry jargon. This is a guide to help clarify and define some of the basic vocabulary used in the VoIP world.
Many of these terms are not limited to the VoIP world. As with so many technologies that revolve around broadband access, wireless networking and telephony, you will see these terms elsewhere so it will be helpful for you to understand their meaning as they relate to VoIP.
Telephone Adapter – In the world of VoIP, a telephone adapter is a device that is installed between your network and your telephone hardware. You can think of it as a converter as it sometimes referred to by this term. The most simple of these devices have three connections: power adapter connected to a power outlet, a 4-wire telephone connection where you plug in your conventional telephone hardware and an Ethernet adapter to connect the device to your network. The adapter converts (digitizes) the analog phone signal to an IP protocol.
Codec – Short for coder/decoder, this is a compression and decompression utility that digitizes and compresses the analog voice signal created by your telephone. There are a number of different codecs used and each one offers differing levels of compression. With varying levels of compression come different levels of quality of voice over the line.
VoIP Service Provider – This is a provider of the actual connectivity of your VoIP hardware, your network and the rest of the world. Some provide only computer-based services while others provide complete home or office solutions including multiple phone numbers and fax/data solutions.
RTP – Real-time Transport Protocol is the protocol used to specify standards for carrying voice calls over broadband connections. RTP is used in conjunction with RTCP (Real-time Transport Control Protocol) to provide QoS (Quality of Service) support. This provides a precedence or ‘right-of-way’ traffic control of voice calls over standard traffic over the network. Standard traffic can be thought of as text, email or other low priority, non-time sensitive traffic.
SIP – Session Initiation Protocol controls the way VoIP traffic is transmitted and routed over a broadband network. In simple terms, SIP is the standard by which a session (phone call) is initiated and terminated (phone hangs up).
VoIP phone – This is a telephone that is designed specifically to be used with a VoIP service. It has the functionality of both a telephone in its basic design but incorporates all the functionality of a telephone adapter making is a single, self-contained VoIP device.
Softphone – This is actually a misleading term in that it is not really a phone at all. A softphone is a computer that is equipped with a microphone, a speaker (or headset) and a software program that allows you to make telephone calls without the need for a conventional telephone or adapter.
By: Jeff Runyon
Mobile Phone Contract Plans With VOIP
October 16th, 2009
Introduction
The revolution of internet communication is here to stay for a very long time and this is primarily because it has done so much to help people by its mere presence alone. The voice over IP (VOIP for short) technology that has hit the market by storm over the last couple of years has now expanded to be a major competing technology in nearly every major branch of communications.
The VOIP revolution has been so fast and so fierce that even the most established conventional telephone companies are now rushing to create VOIP infrastructure that they can provide to their customers so that they don’t end up losing them to other companies that are on the cutting edge. To that end, even mobile phones have been created that have the ability to use VOIP or a similar piece of technology in order to accomplish the same task.
The Mobile Phones
A question that very many people have when they initially here about the recent expansion into the mobile phone market has to do with the technology itself. While it is easy to understand how VOIP technology works on a conceptual level (i.e. the internet connection being used in conjunction with specialty software to facilitate communication in a manner similar to that of a telephone) for normal, land-based systems it is a lot more difficult to understand exactly how it works in the sense of a mobile phone solution.
If you have ever traveled on a plane before, you have more than likely seen a business person utilizing their internet through the use of mobile internet technology. This type of technology has been around for a very long time and all of the major businesses make sure that their correspondents have access to that kind of technology when they are on the move.
Wherever you have the ability to connect to the internet and therefore generate an internet protocol address, you have the ability to use the VOIP technology. This is ultimately how mobile VOIP services are utilized and because of the boom in the market many of these technologies are available for personal use at very reasonable prices.
Advantages
There are many advantages to using a VOIP mobile phone contract and the one that is largest in the eyes of many people is the price. The reason that conventional VOIP became such a popular service was that it was quite a bit cheaper than conventional telephone plans when it came onto the market. In similar fashion, a VOIP mobile phone contract is going to be quite a bit cheaper than the conventional mobile phone contract you have right now.
This decrease in the price has allowed many people the chance to save some money each month and when a person is able to save money without a reduction in quality, they quite obviously are going to become a very loyal customer. The ability of VOIP services to generate a large number of very loyal customers in a very short time is ultimately what has made many companies move a large part of their communication operations towards developing and promoting VOIP technologies.
By: Lee A. Smith
